George Osborne dodged questions over plans to offer more help to the country's top earners

Labour and Tory politicians have come to blows over the 45p top tax rate following the Chancellor's admission that establishing the threshold was not one of the Government's priorities.

George Osborne has avoided calls to rule out further help for the country's top earners, offering vague answers when asked whether those raking in more than £50,000 could see the rate lowered.

Instead he says the Conservatives are committed to raising the tax-free personal allowance bracket from £10,000 to £12,500.

Raising 40 per cent tax so that it only applies to those earning at least £50,000 was also a priority, he said.

At present anyone earning between £31,866 to £150,000 is taxed at the higher rate. Those earning above £150,000 are taxed at the higher rate of 45 per cent.

But Labour politicians are calling for the amount to be raised to 50 per cent for those in the highest bracket.

Accusing the current Government of prioritising 'helping the very richest', Shadow chief secretary Chris Leslie condemned the Chancellor's refusal to rule out offering reduced tax rates on high income salaries.

When pressed in an interview with Sky News the Chancellor refused to rule out making further cuts for Britain's top earners, instead saying the issue was 'not a priority'.

'If that was our priority or our plan we would have made it part of our plan and made it one of our priorities.

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'That's not our plan. Judge us by what we want to do and what we want to do is increase the tax-free personal allowance to £12,500 so people full-time on the minimum wage don't have to pay income tax and millions are better off,' he said.

'And when it comes to higher rate taxpayers our priority is increasing the threshold at which you pay that higher rate, the 40p rate, to £50,000.'

'Those are our big tax commitments for the coming parliament.'

The Chancellor added that any deal between Labour and SNP would harm the country, claiming the latter's leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was 'much stronger' than the opposition leader

He also refused to commit to devoting 2 per cent of the budget to defence, the limit agreed by NATO members.

David Cameron has faced repeated calls to commit to spending 2 per cent of the budget on defence

'We made a commitment at Nato. We are spending it today. We have made a clear commitment to the future of the equipment budget, to increase that in real terms ..,. and we have made commitments on the size of the armed forces,' he said.

'I don't think anyone should be in any doubt ... about our commitment to strong national security'.

He also said any deal struck between the SNP and Labour would harm the country, lambasting First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's attempts to broker such a partnership as 'disturbing'.

'The fact that the Labour Party, that was a party that campaigned for the Union in the referendum, is contemplating an arrangement with the SNP, who want to break up the country, is deeply disturbing.'

He added the Scottish nationalist leaders were 'much stronger' than the opposition leader who he said would be overrun if they entered a coalition together.

'That would be bad for the entire United Kingdom, bad for the integrity of the Union but also bad for our economy because it would mean higher debts and higher taxes.'

He also accused Ed Balls of 'running scared' by not agreeing to a debate with him and Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The Chancellor accused Ed Balls of 'running scared' of a debate on the economy with himself and Danny Alexander

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Labour and Tories clash over 45p top rate of tax after Osborne repeatedly says threshold is 'not one of our priorities' and he ducks calls to rule out cut to 40p